


I Love You

by cress26



Category: The Blacklist (US TV)
Genre: F/M, I Love You, Romance, post 6.11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 03:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18189461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cress26/pseuds/cress26
Summary: As he readies himself for death, Red focuses on the one thing that made his life worth living: Elizabeth's proclamation of love.





	I Love You

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I put together really quickly. No real beta, but she said I'm good to go without...  
> I hope you all enjoy! I'm so excited for tomorrow and I really really hope they won't crush our hearts all over again, at least not so soon.

It’s all a blur to him, a kind of agonizing slow-motion blur as her words keeps repeating, echoing in his mind and heart.

_“I love you.”_

Disbelief still consumes his every fiber. After everything they’ve been through in the past years, all her resentment, the painful betrayal when she faked her death, her constant frustrating and inappropriate behavior - it’s a miracle she feels this way about him now. 

He can hardly recall what happened after sharing his last meal. 

They had been so close and she’d made it so easy for him to open up to her. He knew she was burning with questions, about who he really was, but then she’d chosen to ignore them, because in a way he had given her the answers she was seeking by telling her about his difficult childhood and his loving mother. In the end it was enough for her. 

Enough to reveal her true feelings. 

_“I love you.”_

It was the last thing he had expected to hear, and it shocked him to the core. So much that he found himself incapable of doing anything more than staring at her. 

He can’t remember how he'd managed to change his clothes afterwards or how the warden came to pick him up or how he was chained to the chair in the execution chamber.  
He didn’t feel the intravenous needle that pierced his skin and vein. He didn’t hear what the warden read to him. 

All he can hear are her words still resonating in his ears.

_“I love you.”_

And then, after the curtain is drawn, all he can see is her, sitting in the witness area next to Dembe, looking so upset and sad, fighting her tears and trying so hard to keep it together, that he can’t imagine anything to be less true than the words she’d said to him earlier.

_“I love you.”_

Oh, how he wishes he’d be able to reach out to her now. She looks so alone, so lost and vulnerable. 

The minutes passing by too fast and she really shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t see what’s going to come. Another painful memory that will accompany and haunt her for the rest of her life. 

He never wanted that for her. Any of this. 

He hopes she’ll take his money, take Agnes and just leave it all behind. Starts a better and peaceful life, happiness and joy her companion instead of darkness, crime and death. 

But even though she shouldn’t be here, her presence to him is calming. Time is running out and he’s ready to face this final battle without fear, accepting his fate - because she’s there.

_“I love you.”_

All he can do now is looking at her beautiful face and he finds her looking right back at him with those impressive blue eyes, exchanging everything they ever wanted to tell the other. 

_“I love you.”_

He never gets to say his last words. The shrill ring of the red phone disturbs the silence. 

He watches her cry out, then leap up, their connection breaking. 

Her hand slams against the glass window that separates them and she’s shouting words he doesn’t understand. 

_“I love you.”_

Everything then happens too fast for him to comprehend. 

The warden picks up the phone and listens, a following: “Yes, Sir! We’ll release him immediately, Sir.” leaving his lips. 

The procedure is cancelled, the IV removed and he’s unchained within moments. 

He’s been pardoned. 

He’s confused, looks at her, searching for her, needing her to find peace in the chaos around him, but all he can see is her dashing from the witness room. 

He doesn’t feel the hands that grab him and pulling him up from the chair.  
He doesn’t realize that he’s been dragged from the execution chamber and escorted down a long corridor. 

Because she’s still everything he can think of. 

_“I love you.”_

And then suddenly she’s there, flashing her FBI badge to the men who hold him. 

“I’ll take him from here,” she says in a voice he doesn’t recognize and feels her grasp his arm rather painful. 

He follows her blindly, let her hustle him along the corridor and out of prison. 

_“I love you.”_

It’s on the prison’s parking lot beside a waiting car with Dembe at the wheel, that she finally stops her hurried urgent steps. 

She turns to him and her eyes are drenched with tears. She flings herself against him, wrapping her arms around him, burrowing her head into his shoulder, crushing him to her in a way she’d never done before. 

They stand like this for long minutes, not speaking, just embracing and swaying slightly, as if dancing. 

_“I love you.”_

Finally, she pulls back just a little, and so does he, not letting go but loosens her grip enough to see each other’s faces. 

“You okay?” she asks softly, running a hand down his cheeks, wiping at the tears he doesn’t know he’d shed with her. 

He first nods, but then the gesture becomes a headshake instead. 

“No, I’m not okay.” 

He leans his forehead against hers and she can feel his heart beating fast, his breath against her cheek as he struggles for words. 

“I meant what I said back there,” she whispers reassuringly. 

He reaches out to frame her face with his strong hands, his thumbs tender as they caress her damp cheeks. She lowers her eyes at the touch but he gently lifts her face up to look at him again. 

“I love you, too… I always have.” 

His voice brakes with emotions as she finds his mouth and kisses him deeply. 

_“I love you.”_

The End 


End file.
